News and Lab Updates

8-Hydroxygeraniol is a key biosynthetic precursor to all monoterpene indole alkaloids. Check out our simple and scalable synthesis of 8-hydroxygeraniol published in Organic Syntheses!

A rapidly growing area of research involves the manipulation of amides using nickel catalysis. These transformations are attractive due to nickel's high abundance, low cost, and minimal CO2 footprint. Check out our latest report published in Organic Syntheses on a scalable and practical Ni-catalyzed reduction of 12-aminododecanolactam!

Ni-catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura cross-couplings of aliphatic amides provide a mild complement to traditional methods for the synthesis of alkyl–aryl ketones. Check out our report published in Organic Letters on a benchtop protocol that improves the practicality of these reactions using a paraffin-encapsulation strategy!

Strained heterocyclic allenes represent a class of valuable intermediates that remain underdeveloped. Check out our synthesis of 3,4-oxacyclohexadiene precursors and studies on their utility in trapping reactions and enantiospecific Diels–Alder reactions published in ACIE.

“Collaboration” is not the first word most associate with the field of total synthesis. Yet the complexity of natural products lends itself to advancements not only in synthetic chemistry, but in biocatalysis, biosynthesis, computational chemistry, and drug discovery as well. Here we highlight recent advances in these fields brought on by collaborations in the total synthesis of natural products.

An electron-rich benzylic secondary alcohol enables the reduction of a wide range of aromatic ketones under mildly basic conditions without the need for a transition or main group metal catalysts, with the potential for synthesis of enantioenriched products!

Utilizing Ni/NHC–paraffin capsules developed by our laboratory and commercialized by TCI, undergraduates can now perform air/moisture-sensitive cross-couplings of amides in laboratory classes!

Our collaboration with Codexis has been published in Nature’s new open access chemistry journal, Communications Chemistry. Check out our chemoenzymatic approach to enantioselective alcohol synthesis from amides using C–N bond activation!

Rapid access to diverse heterocyclic conjugated scaffolds via strained intermediates. Synthetic applications include donor–acceptor fluorophores as well as conjugated fluorescent oligomers!

Jason Chari’s collaboration with the Tang Lab has been published in JACS. Check out these efforts to uncover a new domain architecture among fungal PKSs!